DELAWARE — Brief thunderstorms may have caused the Olentangy River levels to raise slightly, but not enough to stop Saturday’s 13th annual celebration in the river’s honor.
The family-friendly Olentangy River Festival aims to provide environmental education, watershed conservation and, of course, a good time.
Organizations including the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Olentangy Watershed Alliance, Sustainable Delaware and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources all had booths with activities and education about the work they do.
But perhaps the highlight of the event, if you weren’t a raffle winner for the kayak or rain barrels, was the conservation awards ceremony.
The awards celebrated two individuals “who exemplify the true spirit of environmental stewardship and preservation in the Olentangy River Watershed,” according to the city of Delaware’s website.
This year’s winners were Russ Gibson and Curtis Casto.
Russ Gibson
Gibson has lived in Delaware for 35 years, all of which were spent protecting and advocating for Ohio’s natural resources, both in his career and personal time.
He began his career with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, working on scenic rivers in northwest Ohio and serving as a state park ranger in the Cleveland area.
This background in watershed work landed him a position at the Ohio EPA, where he helped lead statewide nonpoint source pollution programs and watershed restoration efforts.
In 2010, he closely coordinated the development and implementation of Ohio EPA’s new Surface Water Improvement Fund grants program.
But his biggest impact on the Olentangy River was his leadership coordinating the successful removal of four low-head dams, resulting in a free-flowing river from the Delaware Dam to Worthington for the first time in over 100 years.
Low-head dams block fish migration, degrade water quality, trap sediment and ultimately disrupt the river’s natural flow.
“We are very great lucky to have this wonderful resource that flows through our communities,” Gibson said.
He also paid attention to the banks and corridors that run alongside the river by leading coordination between ODNR and Preservation Parks of Delaware County to apply for grant dollars to protect these lands.
The funding helped Preservation Parks acquire the Havener property — laying
the groundwork for the future Eagle Ridge park, all while protecting key riparian habitats.
“Preservation Parks is continuing to work along the corridor to create access for all of us to enjoy the river and the woodlands next to the river for a very long time,” Gibson said.
In 2018, Gibson retired from the OEPA, ending his 40-years-long career in public service, but he was still not ready to give up his work completely.
He continued to work part time as a grants administrator at Coldwater Consulting, connecting municipalities and park districts to available state and federal funding related to water quality improvements.
Gibson still enjoys his local waterways, taking photographs of the watershed in his free time.
Curtis Casto
Casto won his award for work that didn’t start until he was nearly retired.
Casto, a 69-year-old Knox County resident, describes his need to pick up litter as a mental illness.
“If I’m driving down the road in the springtime and there’s litter everywhere, it just drives me nuts. I’m OCD about it,” Casto said. “I just want to stop and go pick up that litter.
“And when I’m on the river paddling, if I see litter there, I stop and pick it up. I just I can’t pass it up.”
The “obsession” did not start until Casto became involved with a group called Paddle for Heroes, a veterans paddling group.
He started collecting trash because Knox County Recycling & Litter Prevention offered a stipend for bags of litter collected. Casto picked up 80 bags the first year and 200 bags the next to raise money for the organization.
Paddle for Heroes eventually took an idea that started on the Buffalo River in Arkansas: using brightly-colored onion bags for your trash, and other trash you see along the way, while paddling.
“When you’re kayaking or canoeing, there’s always a chance you’ll tip over and take a swim.
With an Onion Bag, your litter stays secure in a tough, brightly colored mesh bag—easy
to spot and retrieve if it goes overboard,” City Watershed & Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Roberts told the crowd before handing Casto his award.
Casto became so involved in the effort to build and install onion bag boxes at river access points on the Kokosing River, he eventually established the work as its own nonprofit, the Onion Bag Litter Prevention Project.
Now, thanks to Casto’s heavy involvement, there are over 200 onion bag boxes across Ohio, including two at the Mingo Park Olentangy River access points.
This work, along with the litter cleanups he organizes, won him the award — but that’s not what’s important to Casto.
“As far as winning awards, if I never win any awards for this, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
His goal? To install boxes with the reusable bags at every river access point in the state and get people involved in local litter clean-ups.
He already has an ambitious summer lineup of river sweeps and events, all listed on his website.
But this year he is also asking for volunteers to assist with the Five Lakes, Five Days challenge, where Casto will lead a river sweep on kayaks/canoes at five nearby water sources.
It takes place July 20-24, with dates and times listed here.
He encourages anyone interested to build and install onion bag boxes, clean up litter or get involved with his work to follow his Facebook page for updates.
